HARD WORK 67 



after a few mouthfuls of grass they would turn to and 

 have a friendly trial of strength, butting each other, locking 

 and unlocking their horns, retiring, then standing on their 

 hind legs and clashing their horns with a report that could 

 be distinctly heard. These games went on till one gave 

 in and turned, when the victor would give the vanquished 

 a parting butt in the rump and turn to grazing again. 

 This performance was enacted several times. 



We had intended sleeping in our old resting-place 

 under the rock higher up, but Mirza Khan changed his 

 tactics after sighting the markhor in the other valley, and 

 brought us down to the main stream. We slept under 

 the trees where we had camped the first day when we 

 were coming up from the village. 



The weather was very cloudy and rainy when we 

 started at five o'clock, and the wind could not be trusted. 

 After waiting for an hour the sun came out, and we 

 went along the ridge to get above the spot where the 

 markhor had been seen. Mirza Khan worked hard, never 

 leaving a rock unsearched, though he risked his neck more 

 than once to do it. We saw no sign of the beasts, 

 however, and at last gave up the search, disappointed and 

 disgusted. We were returning exactly the way we had 

 gone up three days before, when the usual contretemps 

 occurred. It was about five o'clock, and we were all coins 

 carelessly, and looking anxiously to the spot at the bottom 

 of the valley where the coolies should be with the bedding, 

 etc., when Mirza Khan, who was leading, topped a swell on 

 the hillside, and came bang on to the seven large markhor 

 we had been hunting for all day ! They were not more 

 than seventy yards off. The animals rushed down the slope, 

 and by the time a rifle could be got out of the case, where 

 they had been put as it was wet, they were on the opposite 

 hillside, six hundred yards distant at least : they actually 



